After three years of planning and two failed attempts, the Upper Valley Haven, a Vermont-based homeless shelter, may finally begin building a new shelter for homeless adults. The Hartford Planning Commission unanimously approved the Haven's plans to build the shelter next to the Haven's current site in White River Junction, Vt., on Monday night.
Construction of the 20-person facility is expected to begin in the next two to three months and will likely be completed by February 2009, Tom Ketteridge, the managing director of the Haven, said.
"It's almost like this fog we've been having; we know that we're going somewhere but we don't know where we're going," Ketteridge said "It's nice to actually be moving ahead rather than just spinning our wheels trying to get approval."
Currently, the Haven's family shelter is unable to house homeless adults without children, according to the organization's website.
"We can finally serve the folks that currently struggle with homelessness," Ketteridge said.
The plan, however, was met with some opposition. Joe Alvin, whose in-laws live on Demers Avenue, said he was unsure whether the board's decision would be appealed. He cited safety and property value concerns as reasons he opposed the shelter.
"It's not that we oppose the mission of the existing family shelter," Alvin said "It's not in the character of the neighborhood."
The adult homeless shelter might also endanger the children who live in the nearby family shelter, Alvin said. Furthermore, the approved location is not near any public services other than a bus stop, he added.
There are many other available locations for the shelter, such as a site near the White River Junction Veterans Association Medical Center, Alvin said.
Alvin claimed that a majority of the residents of Demers Avenue opposed the construction of the shelter in their neighborhood. Ketteridge, however, said the opposition consisted of only four or five local residents out of the 150 people that live within a quarter of a mile of the Haven.
In 2006, the Haven proposed construction of the new shelter on Pine Street in White River Junction. This plan was abandoned, however, after a nearby school raised concerns about its close proximity to the planned shelter.
The Haven then intended to build the shelter in West Lebanon, N.H., but the Lebanon Zoning Board rejected the proposal by a 3-2 margin. The board argued that the shelter, which they classified as a commercial building, could not be built in a residential zone, Sarah Sennot, development coordinator at the Haven, said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth.
Most of Monday's meeting was spent looking at the Haven's plans to deal with storm water runoff, according to Ketteridge. The planning commission determined that the Haven's original strategy to deal with storm water was inadequate, so the shelter agreed to install a French drain, he said.
Local residents argued that the facility will not provide adequate parking for employees, volunteers, guests and visitors and violated an open-space condition, Ketteridge said, but the Planning Commission decided otherwise.
The shelter should cost about $1.2 million to build, Ketteridge estimated, and will increase the charity's operating budget by about $400,000 per year. To cover these costs, the Haven plans to begin a fundraising campaign to raise about $2 million, he said.
